LIVE YOUR LIFE

As we’ve all commemorated Brad’s life, the same phrase kept coming up:

He lived life to the fullest.

I’ve been wondering about the full meaning of that phrase.

Everyone knows that Brad played a lot!

Brad played softball, football, and dodgeball and excelled in all of them. He was a trapshooter and won a lot at a very young age. He always wanted to be a cowboy, and he was. He had lots of horses. He broke them, trained them and usually sold them for a profit. He learned to team rope and won many awards.

He hunted and fished. He explored the mountains around him, on his four-wheeler, motorcycle, snowmobile, plane or on foot. He knew these mountains well.

He held a sting ray on a sandbar in Grand Cayman, he zip-lined through the jungles of Honduras, snorkeled in Hawaii, scuba-dived in the ocean, hiked to water falls in Jamaica, toured the monuments of Washington D.C., fished for Alaskan Salmon on the river, caught Halibut off the coast of Alaska, landed on Mt. McKinley and listened to the avalanches, and skydived. His dream was to fly. He told me that on our very first date. Brad’s lived out that dream. He was just about to get his pilots license.

Seriously? The guy played so hard! He experienced most of these adventures with me and our family.

Is this what “living your life” really means? Playing as much as you can? Partly, yes. “Men are that they might have joy.” We’re supposed to have fun, be happy, experience life and the world, and share these things with the people we love.

But as hard as Brad played, Brad worked harder.

Brad worked since he was 9 years old, when he dumped garbages and his Dad’s office. His business sense showed very early when he pulled a lawn mower behind his bike and mowed lawns for money. At 17 he started Creative Signs and Graphics with a small vinyl cutter and grew into a successful business that has flourished in the Spanish Fork community. He wasn’t afraid of hard work. He was up at 5 in the summer so he could train his horses before going into work by 8. After working till about 6, he’d head out to plow the fields and work on the irrigation ditches. In his “free time” he worked.

When Brad decided that he wanted to do something, he put his full effort into it until it was perfect. He’d stay up late on the internet studying his latest obsession. He learned about farming, horses, planting trees, gardening, graphic design, printing, or making fences. Then he’d go do it. Perfectly. He beamed with pride when people stopped to admire his fence and told him that he had the best fence in Utah county.

Brad didn’t dream. He did.

But, the sum of Brad’s life isn’t only the things he did and accomplished. It is who he was.

Brad’s priorities were his family. Me and Leah. He was always listening, always trying harder to be a better husband. And he helped me be a better wife.

He was the best Daddy to Leah. He took her on dates and really made her feel important. She was Daddy’s princess.

Brad was kind, he was helpful, he served others, he loved his friends, he was honest, and full of integrity.

The gospel was the foundation of Brad’s life. Especially after some of the storms he had to suffer through, he really learned to lean on his Savior. He and I always strived to make the gospel important in our home. It meant so much to me to have a priesthood holder in my home. And I’m not sure how, but I still feel that Priesthood power. Brad took me to the temple. Our sealing was something special to him. He took it seriously, and knew how precious our marriage was.

All the motivation and energy that Brad put into his work and play, he put into his character and relationships as well.

So when we say that Brad lived his life, it encompasses all that Brad did, all that Brad accomplished and who Brad was.

What an amazing man! What an amazing legacy he left at only 28 years old!

I still can’t believe that he choose me. That on our second date Brad fell in love with me and never looked back.

I still can’t believe I lost him and the life and future that we had together.

I can only hope that I can use Brad as my greatest example and truly

Live my Life.